New bike day

My tri-nerd metamorphosis is now complete: I bought a triathlon bike. As it turns out, there is a difference between tri bikes and TT bikes–tri bikes are not UCI legal. So I guess I won’t be doing any UCI time trials after all.

I got a 2015 Specialized Shiv, so it comes fully Franzia-ready, with an in-frame wine water bladder. It has 105-level components which gave me plenty of pause; but as it was pointed out, you don’t exactly need super fast ninja shifting during time trials. However, the brakes are terrifyingly sponge-like, and given my predilection to go fast downhill, I’ve already ordered replacements.

I took it out on its first long ride on Sunday, and while the bike itself feel great, the fit is terrible. Which makes sense given that I’ve never ridden in an aggressive tuck position before, and I literally had ridden the bike exactly once. By the end of that 50-sh mile ride, my biceps hurt, my neck had completely given up trying to hold my head, and I had the gnarliest saddle sore I’ve had in a long, long time.

Triathletes ride with MTB helmets, right?

Oh, yes, I do have a race in 2 weeks. And I’ll be gone bike packing this weekend (no, not on the Shiv). Thankfully, I will be getting a real fit next Monday, so that gives me a ride or two to get used to whatever they do to it before racing. At least it’s “only” a half Ironman?